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Being a first generation immigrant myself (parents immigrated to America in 1975) I can give a few cultural reasons: 1. Stable two parent home - my parents liv
by vparikh 7y ago
Being a first generation immigrant myself (parents immigrated to America in 1975) I can give a few cultural reasons:
1. Stable two parent home - my parents lived together and shielded us from any arguments/disagreements they had and presented a stable unified upbringing
2. My father had a degree in Microbiology, but when he first migrated had to take a less paying job due to language/racism. My mother had a high school education. My father eventually ended up in a top research company and my mother got a masters in computer science from the local state university. This example ingrained the merits of grit and hard work
3. Education - specifically math and science - were emphasized in my family over sports, social and other activities. This was very different then my friends.
4. Academic expectations were extremely high - in my family strait As was baseline.
5. Family and community support - we had strong support from other immigrant indian community growing up. And the community as a whole valued the same things as my family.
These traits can be replicated in non immigrant American society - but often it is not. The main difference I see is a lack of a strong family unit and acceptance of low academic standards.
This could be just my experience - would be interested in hearing others
- tathougies 7y agoYou are basically me. My dad also had a microbiology degree but his first job in this country was a waiter and janitor. This ended up turning into basically slave, unpaid labor, which he managed to escape thanks to my mother. My mother had an economics and poli sci degree but worked as a secretary. She decided to become a teacher and had to her entire university again at night because California wouldn't accept her Indian degrees. My brother and I spent many nights in her college classes doing our homework under her desk. Really taught us the importance of hard work to get what we want. After waitering, my dad had all sorts of odd jobs -- real estate agent, garbage man, computer guy -- until finally getting a job in pharmaceuticals thanks to my mom getting the HR ladies at her office (while she was a secretary) to review his resume and help him. Academic expectations were absolutely the same. Even A minus was not accepted.
- jdmg94 7y agoIf you're born into America to Immigrant parents, doesn't that make you a second generation immigrant?
- vparikh 7y agoI should have clarified - I was 4 and my sister was 2 when my parents immigrated.
- codegeek 7y agoI mean aren't you talking about most Indian-Americans if not all :). Being an Indian-American myself (first generation even though I came here at a very young age), what you described is pretty much how we live.